Vaccine manufacturers cannot be sued outside of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

The Supreme Court recently ruled in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act preempted lawsuits based on defective design claims in state courts. The justices, voting 6-2, said that the VICP preempts claims that a drugmaker should have manufactured and sold a safer formulation of a vaccine. This means that it is virtually impossible to make a "design defect" claim against a vaccine manufacturer in state court, and the VICP is a parent's only recourse when their child has been injured by a vaccine.